Week 2 - Issues to explore
- rosieglenwright
- Sep 26, 2019
- 5 min read
Coeliac Disease
Over the past week I have been researching areas that I am interested in to help generate ideas for my personal honours project. Initially I was looking at the potential of designing an app for people that suffer with Coeliac Disease as it is something I have dealt with my whole life. After a week of researching I realised it was something that I have lived with for so long I didn't have the passion I needed to fuel my project and push it further. I have also been looking at the possibility of designing a data visualisation site that incorporates some form of public display. Both of these ideas sparked interest but I need to focus more specifically on a certain area that I am passionate about and not on the end outcome/product.
I've decided to take a bit of a step back and start exploring sociological issues that impact a large number of people within modern society such as homelessness, street harassment and sexual violence.
Homelessness
During 2018/19 there were 36,465 applications to Scottish councils under statutory homelessness legislation.
54% of main applicants are male.
57% are aged under 35.
66% are single households (primarily single men), and 21% are single parents.
76% are White Scottish.
Street Harassment & Sexual Violence
According to An Overview of Sexual Offending in England and Wales: https://rapecrisis.org.uk/get-informed/about-sexual-violence/statistics-sexual-violence/
- Approximately 85,000 women and 12,000 men (aged 16 - 59) experience rape, attempted rape or sexual assault by penetration in England and Wales alone every year; that's roughly 11 of the most serious sexual offences (of adults alone) every hour.
- Conviction rates for rape are far lower than other crimes, with only 5.7% of reported rape cases ending in a conviction for the perpetrator. (Kelly, Lovett and Regan, A gap or a chasm? Attrition in reported rape cases, 2005)
More than two thirds of girls, surveyed in 4 countries, have been sexually harassed in the past 6 months "A survey of 2,560 young people aged between 14 and 21 in Brazil, Kenya, India and the UK carried out by charity ActionAid shows how sexual harassment is a global phenomenon, blighting the daily lives of young women and girls." - Ann Gulland, Global Health Security Correspondent, The Telegraph
What is out there already...?
I looked into existing projects/products that aim to help women feel safe when they feel at their most vulnerable; ie walking home or on a date that isn't going well.
LUX: https://www.napier.ac.uk/about-us/news/app-and-wristband-will-link-friends-together-on-nights-out
Beatriz Carvalho, an Edinburgh Napier Product Design Graduate, designed a subtle black wristband called 'Lux'. It aims to draw attention to women in situations of distress and provide solutions to potential escalating problems. The band links up to an app that friends can join together prior to or on a night out. The band is black which makes it discreet, when a situation arises and the user feels uncomfortable they can tap once which alerts a friend through the app so they know they need help. If things escalate the user can tap the band twice which makes the band glow yellow, this attracts the attention of both the staff in the premises and also acts as a warning to the perpetrator.
Free to be
Another project I have been researching is the Plan International 'Free to Be' digital safety map. Alex Munive, Global Head of Gender and Inclusion at Plan International, said, "Around the world, girls and women feel unsafe in their home cities, yet they go unheard when it comes to decisions that impact their safety. All girls have the right to feel safe. Free to Be is an interactive map that lets girls and young women map out places they love, places they avoid and places that need to be improved. It’s free to use, it’s fun and easy and importantly, it has been designed by other young women and girls."
The app allows women to share their experiences and stories of the city and pinpoint certain areas; purple for good and orange for bad. It gives other users a deeper insight of the city and what places they should potentially avoid. It provides women with a platform to share their experiences/ fears with things such as sexual harassment or assault without the pressure of an official report.
Ellie Cosgrave, Director of the City Leadership Lab at University College London said, "I argue that it is also a problem of a city’s physical infrastructure and how it is designed. It’s the unlit streets and overcrowded trains and buses that allow assaults to go unnoticed, the unsafe and inappropriate toilet provision and the public transport that provides no space for prams or pushchairs. I have spent many years researching the ways in which our cities could be designed to support the needs of women as well as men and, by extension, a diversity of body types."
She goes on to discuss, "How most urban metros are designed with radial rather than orbital routes. Here we see that the implicit assumption is that the system should be designed for people who are accessing the paid, daytime labour market. Therefore, those who are accessing night-time work, are engaged in the informal labour market, are at school or college, or have caring responsibilities (which may involve many local, multi stop encumbered journeys) are at best an afterthought in the design practice of most cities."
Most cities use radial transport routes, these images show examples of Edinburgh, London and New York City's main transport routes
Women's Night Safety Charter
Far too many women in London feel unsafe when either working or travelling around the capital at night. The people of London have asked Night Czar to prioritise women's safety and the mayor has created a charter in order to make women feel more confident in their safety on the streets.
The Charter (quoted from Mayor of London, London Assembly)
To support the Women's Night Safety Charter, we ask all organisations that operate at night to sign-up to some simple pledges:
- Nominate a champion in your organisation who actively promotes women’s night safety
- Demonstrate to staff and customers that your organisation takes women’s safety at night seriously, for example through a communications campaign
- Remind customers and staff that London is safe, but tell them what to do if they experience harassment when working, going out or travelling
- Encourage reporting by victims and bystanders as part of your communications campaign
- Train staff to ensure that all women who report are believed
- Train staff to ensure that all reports are recorded and responded to
- Design your public spaces and work places to make them safer for women at night
Safe Cities and safe Public Spaces https://www.plan.org.au/-/media/plan/images/unsafe-city/reports/unsafe-in-the-city-full.pdf?la=en&hash=53997CB2224BB61FF2AC0FC9BE8DED97D634364C
How Vienna designed a city for women
Vienna have designed their city through a gender lens meaning the government have made the city safer through urban design. City planners have designed over 60 projects to help make the city a safer place, things like more street lighting, wider pavements, adjustments to play parks are all part of the plan to make women feel safer in their city.
Next steps
Decide on what subject area I would like to take further
Narrow down and start gathering more in depth research
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